DISASTER RESILIENCESurvey Results

In April and May of 2015, 52,845 Utahns shared their voice through the Your Utah, Your Future survey. Participants chose their favorite scenarios for disaster resilience and other topics. After choosing their favorite scenarios, survey participants had the option to answer a series of questions to prioritize disaster resilience among other issues, determine the most important outcomes related to disaster resilience, and identify how willing they would be to take specific actions to ensure those outcomes. The survey results were cross-checked against a random-sample survey to ensure they represented the desires and opinions of Utahns.

What Utahns Want

Utahns want to be more disaster resilient. Four out of five Utahns chose a scenario in which Utah’s disaster resilience improves dramatically. More than half chose the scenario that makes the greatest improvement to disaster resilience, requiring the greatest investment. In this scenario, almost all unreinforced brick buildings are retrofitted, building codes are upgraded as soon as possible to strengthen new buildings, new homes and buildings are generally not built in disaster-prone areas, and infrastructure is upgraded to be disaster resilient.

Why Utahns Want It

Utahns want to reduce the number of deaths and injuries that would occur in a disaster. They also want to decrease recovery time after a disaster, so they are able to return to their normal lives as quickly as possible. In addition, Utahns want to reduce how many people would be without a home after an earthquake and how much it would cost to repair the damage.

What Utahns Are Willing To Do

Utahns are very willing to do what it takes to become more resilient to disasters. Utahns are willing to pay the small additional cost for housing and utilities in order to be more disaster resilient. They are highly willing to require that homes in wild areas be built with fire-resistant material and that yards and open areas include places to capture water from large storms. Utahns are also willing to include swales that help capture stormwater in their yards, parks, park strips, and other open spaces.